Glitch Causes Early Release of Home Prices

A computer-systems glitch caused the Federal Housing Finance Agency to broadcast an email alert around 6:45 p.m. Tuesday that contained the monthly change in its home-price index, a spokeswoman said. After receiving inquiries about the email, the housing regulator decided to publish the full report on its website, according to WSJ. The report had been scheduled to be released at 10 a.m. Wednesday, the same time as the Commerce Department's release of new-home-sales data.

The FHFA's report said home prices rose for the seventh straight month in August, increasing 0.7% on a seasonally adjusted basis from July. Compared with a year earlier, home prices were up 4.7%. This is the largest year-over-year increase in 6 yrs.


For the nine census divisions, seasonally adjusted monthly price changes from July to August
ranged from -0.5 percent in the East South Central division to +3.0 percent in the Pacific
division while the 12-month changes ranged from 0.4 percent in the Middle Atlantic division to
+11.4 percent in the Mountain division.


FHFA uses the purchase prices of houses with mortgages owned or guaranteed by Fannie Mae
or Freddie Mac to calculate the monthly index.